The online campaign: building the 2013 Australian federal election web collection

ALIA National 2014 Conference, 15-19 September 2014 Melbourne : together we are stronger

This conference paper discusses how the National Library of Australia and its participant agencies built the largest collection of online Australian election material to date in 2013. The election was notable in a number of ways, the new platforms being used to disseminate a political message, the amount of material that was produced and how much of this we could and could not collect.

Candidates and political parties have also embraced the online world and used it increasingly used as a means of spreading their campaign message. This election Pandora collected more than it has in any previous election, but content was missed. This was for a variety of reasons, lack of permissions, technical limitations and constrained resources. But what was collected will form the basis upon which future researchers can look back at what drove the election campaign online.